Travel Air Manufacturing Co., of which Walter H. Beech was an officer, introduced the Travel Air 6000 in 1928. It was a six-seat commercial-cabin monoplane and a more recent development of the Travel Air 5000. The airplane housed either a 220-hp Wright Whirlwind, a 300-hp Whirlwind, or a 410-hp Pratt & Whitney. The 220-hp Whirlwind was the original powerplant. When Travel Air merged with the Curtiss-Robertson Division of Curtiss-Wright, the aircraft’s designation was changed to Travel Air Model 6. Construction was mixed: fabric-covered wooden wings and a welded steel-tube fuselage covered by fabric. The wings utilized box spars with spruce flanges, plywood sides, and built-up Warren- truss-type ribs.